Retorta
Finca Pascualete, nestled in the wildly beautiful countryside of Spanish Extramadura, is home to one of my favorite cheeses, Retorta. The Finca (farm) is also at the heart of one of cheesemaking’s most remarkable origin stories. One involving a glamorous American spy, a World War II love story and an ambitious plan to breathe new life into a Spanish country estate. In 2012 I visited this magical place and was immediately captivated.
Extramadura is one of the most rugged and poorest regions of Spain. However, it’s also the birthplace of some of Spain’s most renowned foods, including the traditional production of Torta style cheeses such as Finca Pascualete’s Retorta.
Historically, these cheeses were made on a tiny scale for personal consumption by nomadic shepherds who, seeking a way to preserve the milk, made use of the only resources available to them - in this instance creating rennet from the dried stamens of local cardoon thistle.
At Finca Pascualete this traditional way of life endured remarkably unchanged for centuries where time basically stood still, even surviving four decades of the Franco dictatorship in the 20th century. That is, at least until the arrival of Aline Griffith.
Aline Griffith was from a well-heeled family and grew up in the Hudson Valley during the 1920’s. She was a young woman at the point when America entered the Second World War and, driven to “do her part”, (and to the horror of her parents) Aline joined the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA.
As an accomplished Spanish speaker, her first assignment was to Madrid on an intelligence gathering assignment, specifically to infiltrate the European aristocracy and upper echelons of society, and report her findings to the OSS.
During her time there, Griffith met and fell in love with Luis de Figueroa, the Count of Romanones, who was heir to several estates throughout Spain. After the war, they married and Aline discovered that his holdings included a long-neglected property, Finca Pascualete, with origins that dated back to 1232.
No one from the Figueroa family had visited the estate in well over a hundred years and, her curiosity peaked, Aline convinced her husband to make the arduous journey from Madrid to see it. She immediately fell in love with the forgotten stone mansion, surrounded by gentle hills, meadows dotted with ancient oak trees, grazing sheep and wild game. Aline wasted no time in setting about the restoration of the main house and bringing the estate back to life.
Various agrarian initiatives took root over the following decades, all with the aim of ensuring a sustainable future for the property. In 2005, Juan Figueroa, grandson of Aline and Luis, together with his father, decided to build a creamery specifically to make the traditional tortas of the region which, until then, had only been produced individually by the shepherds.
Juan explains that to improve the quality of the milk and especially to increase the fat/protein ratio, they started by importing one thousand Lacaune lambs from France to mix them with the indigenous breed of Merino sheep. The combination of breed development and natural grazing is enhanced with a home grown five-star feed mixture which the sheep love. “It costs a fortune,” Luis says, rolling his eyes. “No one else in Spain feeds their sheep like this”.
After two years of exhaustive development, the Retorta cheese was launched and has since gone on to win many awards. Technically, it’s a challenging cheese to make and even more challenging to mature, requiring skill and constant attention on the part of the head cheesemaker and the twenty strong creamery team, many of whom are descendants of ancestors who worked on the estate.
When mature, Retorta has a rust-colored golden rind that when cut, reveals a silky smooth, yielding and custardy interior. Flavors are supremely complex. Simultaneously sweet and savory, with distinctly umami notes, hints of orange pith (Andy also tastes grappa!), and a pleasantly gentle slightly sour finish.
Part of the secret to these extraordinary flavors lies with using thistle rennet. This is made by taking dried purple stamens of the cardoon thistle and adding a small amount of water, essentially making a thistle “tea” which is then strained and added to the fresh sheep’s milk in the cheesemaking vat.
While a limited number of other cheesemakers in Spain and Portugal also use thistle rennet, what sets Pascualete Retorta apart is the addition of a minute amount of starter culture at the beginning of the cheesemaking process. The addition of starter culture is frowned upon by the DOP authorities. However it allows Finca Pascualete to produce a much more consistent cheese with wider consumer appeal, thereby ensuring a more sustainable business and future.
Throughout their maturation, cheeses receive daily attention akin to a high end cheese spa. It’s a labor intensive process. Each wheel is wrapped with a traditional band of lace. They’re turned (flipped) every day and moved around within different areas and spaces of the aging caves, exposing them to a variety of favorable conditions of humidity and temperature.
At the end of their maturation the rounds are packed into special boxes and shipped out. For some wheels, happily, their ultimate destination is Hudson, NY.
The wheels of Retorta we have on the counter right now are outstanding - and won’t last long. If you’ve never tasted a cheese made with thistle rennet, please stop by. Now is your chance.
Kate Arding